NEW YORK (Nessiah Festival) - Avi Avital, the young Israeli mandolin virtuoso, who recently won the first prize at the international competition for Plucked
Strings "Città di Voghera" in Italy, will present the World Premiere of Avner Dorman's Mandolin Concerto on December 18, 2006 at 8:00 P.M. at Sala Barozzi in Milan and on December 19, 2006 at 9:00 P.M. at Teatro Verdi in Pisa. The new concerto juxtaposes the mandolin in diverse styles ranging from Middle-Eastern Folk
Music to Bluegrass, and from Renaissance to Italian cinematic music. All of these elements collide and crash, creating a powerful dramatic pulse throughout the piece. The Rostov Soloists led by conductor
Andrea Gottfried will join Avital for the performances as part of the Nessiah Festival - a
Journey in the Jewish cultural tradition - the most important Jewish festival in Italy organized by the Jewish Community of Pisa since 1997.
Dorman is not just a fresh, young voice worth following. He's also a composer whose music… fits well on the instrument and resonates strongly with the musical tradition at large.
About the artists:
Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman quickly rose to become one of Israel's most successful and renowned composers. At the age of 25, he became the youngest composer ever to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Award. His works, exclusively published by G. Schirmer, have been commissioned and performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta and over a dozen other music ensembles, and earned him numerous prizes from esteemed international institutions. An album of Dorman's solo piano works performed by Eliran Avni and recorded in Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall, was released this May on Naxos to critical acclaim. Ken Smith of Gramophone said, "Dorman is not just a fresh, young voice worth following. He's also a composer whose music… fits well on the instrument and resonates strongly with the musical tradition at large."
Avi Avital is a graduate of the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and "Conservatorio Cesare Pollini" of Padove (Italy). He has played as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra "I Pomeriggi Musicali" (Italy) and "Orchestra Cantelli" (Italy) under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovitch, Asher Fisch, Philippe Entremont and Andrew Lawrence-King. In the past three years, Avi Avital has performed regularly with the renowned clarinetist Giora Feidman. He has recorded 8 CDs with different international ensembles.
The young Italian conductor Andrea Gottfried had the fortune of starting his conducting studies in the class of the legendary Sergiu Celibidache. Gottfried began his professional career at age 15 when he became music director and composer of a young orchestra at Teatro Verdi in Pisa. He later founded the Nessiah Festival in Pisa. Gottfried received a degree in conducting at the Rubin Academy in Tel-Aviv where he studied with Noam Sheriff. Gottfried's book - Music of Israel, A Life Experience - was recently published by Proedi publishing in Milan. In 2002, he was a co-winner of the "Oedoen Partos" prize for a performance of Avner Dorman's song cycle Boaz.
Mandolin Concerto will be premiered by Avi Avital and the Rostov Soloists led by Andrea Gottfried on December 18, 2006 at 8:00 P.M. at Sala Barozzi in Milan and on December 19, 2006 at 9:00 P.M. at Teatro Verdi in Pisa.
